obama care

“You must really hate Obama.”

I hear this weekly and it still disorients.  The message is that the affordable care act is the worst public health policy since female genital mutilation and Barack’s misguided polices are destroying our country.

            The thing is; they’re not.  Obama care is mostly wonderful.  People who never received preventive healthcare are now being treated.   Fewer people will die of colon cancer, stroke, and diabetes.  Ultimately , my insurance rates will drop as  patients undergo more preventive  healthcare.  A colonoscopy costs  $250. Treating metastatic colon cancer  costs  over  $50,000.   The real question is: why do benign,  helpful and kind spirited  policies  elicit such blind hatred?

Two stories.

A Genie appears before a Russian peasant. “You have two wishes. You may wish for anything.  Gold, power, immortality. Just name it.”  The Russian thinks a bit.

“I have no milk. I would like a cow.”

Done! a cow  appears. What’s next?

The old man thinks.   “OK, he says, I want you to kill my neighbor’s cow.”

 Point is, there is no success unless one’s neighbor suffers. 

In an updated version of this story,   the  peasant  works at  Whole Foods and receives   subsidized healthcare through his job .  Suddenly, his  foolish, slothful  neighbor, who works at  McDonalds and doesn’t receive health care,  is granted  health benefits.   Our Whole Foods worker persevered and obtained a job that came with healthcare. Now his benefits will come with an increased deductable to subsidize his  neighbor’s  newly acquired  Obama care. He is not his brother’s keeper. He resents chipping  in for  the new benefits.

     Story two

A few years ago, I suggested universal, compulsory vaccination   was a public duty, a civic responsibility.    After all, I reasoned, If your getting the measles vaccine protects me against s disease I am unable to be vaccinated against, you have a duty to be vaccinated

            I was amazed by the hate mail.   “Your  disease is not my problem”  I was told reputedly in  ( mostly) anonymous e mails. People felt they shouldn’t be forced to risk their lives to help others.

Healthcare is similar :   Your Obama care  colonoscopy  raises everyone’s insurance premiums.  By forcing  everyone to enroll in health care,   everyone  subsidizes  everyone else’s treatments.    This is painfully true for me: The costs for my stem cell transplant  was borne by everyone at Hartford Healthcare systems. I try to compensate by bringing in brownies, but  I suspect my  high carb  gifts are just provoking more diabetes among my  colleagues.   Sorry

My bleeding heart  is glad to  pay for others’  colonoscopies and blood screenings, if it will    spare  others the misery of  receiving treatment for  colon cancer.

But this begs the question: How and why did we become so mean?   When  did churches  stop  preaching the golden rule? When did  we  stop being our brothers’’  keepers?   This is the real disturbing part of   the story.   When did altruism become a weakness?  The Obama hated implies a nation of bitter malcontents, evokes a society where generosity and societal concern have mutated into undesirable traits.

The uninsured poor are   victims of their own sloth, stupidity, and greed.   I am aware that if I didn’t have a working spouse, I would not have health care. I wouldn’t have undergone my stem cell transplant, What if I lived in Mississippi? The answer is easy. I would be dead.  What amazes me that I am not unique.  Doesn’t the governor of Mississippi know anyone who contracted cancer?  Doesn’t he know  someone  so injured at work that he or she couldn’t work again?  I find it hard to believe the reason southern states don’t push for universal healthcare is that everyone there is so darn healthy.   Doesn’t anyone one watch Paula Dean?

Obama care has been a lifesaver for many. People are undergoing their colonoscopies,  receiving their  medications.  

I dislike Obama care because, suddenly, 60,000 people now have insurance in Connecticut and they need to be seen.

light blue states: No expansion of medicare. Dark blue:  increased coverage. Is there a trend  here?

Every week, the providers are asked to work more hours, see more patients as a direct result of expanding coverage.   As a lazy, tired, chronically ill patient I have issues with Obama care, sure. I have to work harder. But that’s no reason to hate the guy.